Virtual summit: South-East Asia leaders meet by video on pandemic

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, background, addresses Asean leaders during the Special Asean summit on Covid-19 in Hanoi, Vietnam on April 14, 2020. Asean leaders and their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea hold the summit online to discuss actions coping with the Covid-19 pandemic. — AP

HANOI, Vietnam: Forced apart by the coronavirus pandemic, South-East Asian leaders linked up by video on April 14 to plot a strategy to overcome a crisis that has threatened their economies and kept millions of people in their homes under lockdowns.

The heads of state of the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations were to hold further talks later Tuesday, also through video conferencing, with their counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea who are expected to express their support in helping Asean fight the coronavirus. Vietnam, Asean's leader this year, has postponed an in-person gathering tentatively to June.